


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair

by fangirl_squee



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Other, background even/cascabel - Freeform, background reverie family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 15:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21394084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: Echo’s bike is broken in a way that even they can’t fix. Luckily Even knows a good mechanic.
Relationships: Gig Kep-hart/Echo Reverie
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to lu for [the](https://twitter.com/smallpolar_bear/status/1153275136855957505)  
[idea](https://twitter.com/smallpolar_bear/status/1152384812235329536)!!

Echo surveyed their bike, or what remained of it. The parts were scattered across the floor of Even and Cascabel's garage in their ongoing attempt to find the cause of the weird engine issue they were having. 

"I think you're going to have to actually take it in somewhere this time," said Even.

Echo glanced over their shoulder to where Even stood in the doorway, arms folded.

They sighed. "I can do it myself."

Even stepped into the room, couching down beside them. "Normally I'd say that was true but it's been two days and it's still in, like… an exploded state."

Echo bristled. "If you want me to leave you could just  _ say  _ so."

"Hey, no, Echo, you know that's not what I mean," said Even, "I just… look, I know this guy, he’s… well, he’s kind of a mechanic. He's really good with this stuff. Maybe he could help?"

Echo scowled down at the spanner in their hands. They didn’t need some  _ mechanic  _ to help. They’d been riding and fixing their bike as long as they could walk, basically. 

Even sighed. "Echo… wouldn't you be happier if you could ride it again instead of just looking at it in here?"

"I  _ guess _ ," said Echo. They paused. “When I take it to this guy and he can’t fix it, can I bring it back here?”

Even laughed, putting a hand on their shoulder. “Sure. If Gig doesn’t know how to fix it, you can take all the time you need in here.”

Despite how useless Even’s friend was undoubtedly going to be, Echo smiled. Once they had space to work on their bike again, they’d have it fixed in no time.

  
  


Even’s friend, it turned out, didn’t work out of any garage Echo knew of. Instead, Even drove them to an unassuming warehouse, in a row of other unassuming warehouses. There was a brightly coloured sign on the door, the only thing that marked it as different to the others in the row.

_ Gig’s Place _ , read the sign,  _ I am: streaming, please text before entering [ ] / not streaming (come on in!) [x] _

“Streaming?” said Echo.

“It’s… that’s kind of his thing,” said Even, “It’s like an online video thing.”

“I thought you said this guy was a mechanic?” said Echo.

“I said he was  _ like _ a mechanic,” said Even, knocking on the door, “Trust me, he can fix  _ anything _ .”

“Come in!” said a bright voice from inside.

Echo wasn’t sure what they’d been expecting the inside of the warehouse to look like, but it certainly wasn’t this; the walls were splattered with paint, the colours swirling enough and high-reaching enough to be purposeful rather than the result of some kind of paint explosion; benches stacked high with machine parts of all kinds, half-dismantled appliances and a large array of pipe fittings; a vintage car, half polished and clean and half either in the process of being taken apart or put back together; a small helicopter-like device with blades from a ceiling fan, a trestle table straining under the weight of an array of computers; in the middle of the chaos, a pristine-looking photography set-up, different backdrops and delicate-looking costumes hung next to it on a rack that looked like it had been made out of the same industrial pipe that was scattered on the benches.

A man slid out from underneath the vintage car, streaks of oil covering his bright green overalls and matching eyepatch. “Hi, hey, hello! Good to see you!”

Even smiled, offering him a hand up, pulling the guy to his feet. “Hey Gig, this is Echo-”

“With the bike problem!” said Gig, “Let’s take a look!”

“Only if you have time,” said Echo, “you look like you’re kind of in the middle of something.”

Gig laughed. “I always am!”

Gig followed Even out to the van, chattering non stop about something. Echo immediately tuned him out, focussing instead on carefully lifting the remains of their bike onto the ground. They were glad that, for all his erratic movements, this Gig guy seemed to at least have enough sense to be careful with their bike.

“Echo?” said Even.

Echo looked up. “Sorry, what?”

“I said what kind of issue were you having with it?” said Gig, gesturing with the part of the bike he was holding. “I mean, besides that it’s currently in like, a million parts right now.”

“The engine’s making a weird noise,” said Echo, “I thought it was the oil, maybe, or something lose somewhere but…” They shrugged.

Gig hummed, narrowing his eye at the bike. “Be right back.”

He handed the part he’d been looking at to Even, rushing back into the warehouse and emerging a moment later with an old ipad.

“Okay, so,” said Gig, “did it sound anything like this?”

He tapped something on the screen, producing a grating, high-pitched noise.

Echo shook their head. “No, it was more like, uh-”

They tried to reproduce the weird gravely squeak they’d been hearing, feeling their cheeks heat a little. 

Gig nodded, his face serious, imitating the noise as he scrolled through something on the ipad.

“Like this?”

He tapped something on the ipad again. The noise this time had the right gravely tone to it.

Echo nodded. “Yeah, but it was more like-” They tried to imitate the squeaking noise, their voice fading as they saw Even looking at them, his lips pressed together to suppress a laugh.

“What?”

“Nothing,” said Even.

Gig hummed to himself, scrolling through for a moment before he tapped a couple of things. “How’s this?”

Echo blinked in surprise at the ipad as the gravely-squeaky noise came from it.

“Yeah, that’s… that’s exactly it,” said Echo, “How’d you do that?”

Gig brightened. “I keep an audiolog of the stuff I work on. Never heard these two sounds coming from the same machine though, really interesting…”

“So you  _ don’t _ know how to fix it?” said Echo.

“Not yet,” said Gig, “But if you give me a couple of days I might.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with my bike for  _ days _ ,” said Echo.

“So you can come by while I work on it,” said Gig, “Most people find it kind of boring to watch, but-”

“My bike is  _ not _ boring,” said Echo.

Gig laughed. “Definitely not!” He played the sound again. “Yeah, wow, this is going to be really interesting to figure out.”

“But you think you  _ can _ figure it out?” said Even.

Gig blinked, his gaze moving back to Even for the first time. “Oh yeah, for sure.”

“Great,” said Even, “See, I told you this was the guy.”

Gig laughed, a sound as bright as his clothes.

They carefully moved the bike, piece by piece, onto a sheet Gig had laid down next to the vintage car in the warehouse. Gig tied his hair up into a messy bun, listening to the weird gravely-squeak sound on repeat.

“You good?” said Even.

Gig nodded distractedly. “Yeah, I got it, I’ll text you?”

“Don’t you need my number for that first?” said Echo.

Gig blinked, looking up at Echo. “Oh. Yeah.” He huffed a laugh. “Might help!”

He handed Echo his phone, an extremely light screen with a grease-streaked neon orange cover. It took Echo a few moments to even find where to input his number, before Even leaned forward, swiping through two pages of aps a tapping the ADD CONTACT icon.

“This phone,” muttered Echo, “is a mess.”

“You just don’t like using anything made after the year 2000,” said Even.

“I just don’t see why I should have to,” said Echo, “My phone works fine without any of this stuff.”

“They have a brick phone,” said Even.

Gig’s eyes widened, and Echo braced themselves for the weird shock that usually followed.

“Oh wow,” said Gig, “that’s so cool, those things are like,  _ indestructible _ , can I see it?”

“Uh, sure?”

Gig took the phone. “Wow. Do you have-” he laughed, delighted. “Oh man, there’s snake on here!” He grinned at Echo. “It is so cool that you have this, totally hold on to this.”

Echo took the phone back, shooting Even a pleased look. “I will, thank you.”

They didn’t stay too long after that, Even checking his phone repeatedly in a way that meant he had plans with Cascabel but didn’t want to say. Echo turned their phone over in their hands, watching the line of warehouses fade into the distance in the side mirror as Even drove.

“I can drop you back later tomorrow if you want,” said Even.

Echo shrugged. “I can just take the train.”

  
  


They did, the next day. They’d texted Gig earlier to make sure he was there, of course, which he’d responded to extremely enthusiastically.

“He’s just like that,” said Even.

This time, the sign on the door was different.

_ Gig’s Place _ !

_ I am streaming, please text before entering [x] / not streaming (come on in!) [ ] _

Echo frowned, then slowly typed out a text.  _ I’m here _ .

They tapped their feet, scattering clouds of dust from the rocky ground. It took a minute for Gig to reply.

_ Be done in five! Unless you want to be on stream for a bit? _

Echo made a face at their phone.  _ No _ .

True to his word, it was only five minutes before Gig’s head poked around the door.

“Hi, hello!” said Gig, “Sorry about that, today’s my usual morning stream day. Come in!”

Echo followed him in. “Do you do that a lot?”

Gig laughed. “Oh, yeah, pretty much all the time is content time.”

“That sounds… actually, that sounds awful.”

Gig laughed again. “Yeah, I totally get that, but it’s… I dunno. It’s fun, you get to know people, people get to know you... Anyway! You must be here to see your bike!”

“I guess I must be,” said Echo.

“So it’s kind of a good news, bad news, good news thing,” said Gig, “the good news number one is that I’ve figured out where the weird noise is coming from.”

“Okay,” said Echo slowly, “and the bad news?”

“It’s not that bad, but it’s going to need a part that I won’t have until the end of the week,  _ but _ good news number two is that the end of the week isn’t that far away, if you think about it.”

“It’s Monday,” said Echo.

“So it’s only a few days away,” said Gig, “And what’s a few days, compared with the rest of your life?”

“I guess when you put it that way…”

“Exactly!” said Gig, “Anyway, sorry I couldn’t have it done by now, I know Even kinda talks me up a little too much sometimes.”

“It’s fine,” said Echo, “I mean, I guess I’m kind of glad you could figure out what was wrong with it at all. I sure as hell couldn’t.”

“No problem!”

“So, uh,” said Echo awkwardly, “how much do you charge for repairs like that?”

“Uh, nothing?” said Gig, “I mean, I don’t normally charge for this kind of stuff unless the person’s a huge asshole.”

“Oh,” said Echo, “Uh, thanks.”

Gig grinned. “No problem. Hey, since you’re here- do you want lunch? I’ve been fixing-slash-making this sandwich toaster and I was going to try it out.”

“Uh. Sure.”

The sandwiches turned out pretty good, even if the machine that toasted them did look as though it might have transformed into the terminator at any moment.

“I’ll put a casing on it when it’s done,’ said Gig, “red maybe, with flame decals.”

“Flames, for toasting.”

Gig laughed. “Exactly!”

Echo found themselves lingering after they ate, not so much checking over they bike as they were standing next to it as they gave Gig the sketched out story of how they’d come to own it. For all that Gig could talk a mile a minute he was a great listener, nodding as Echo spoke, not pushing at any topic Echo skirted around.

“It’s cool that it’s like a family thing,” said Gig.”You know, that you all have this thing in common.”

Echo shrugged, their stomach twisting a little as they thought of Ballad’s face, flushed and angry as they’d peeled out of the parking lot. “I guess.”

Gig nodded, turning the topic away to the bike itself, for which Echo was extremely grateful.

  
  


They’d stayed much longer than they meant to. Even and Cascabel had already eaten dinner when they arrived back home, although they had, of course, saved some. Cascabel puttered around the kitchen reheating the meal and Echo followed Even out onto the back porch. They could see Cascabel through the open kitchen window, humming to himself.

“How’d it go today?” said Even.

His tone was careful, like it always was when he was curious but worried Echo might be prickly about something, a tone he’d used quite a bit since Echo had arrived a few weeks earlier. The tone, ironically, always made Echo feel more inclined to be prickly.

“Fine,” said Echo. They paused. “I had to wait a bit for him to finish streaming, but after that it was okay, we hung out.”

Even nodded, gaze fixed much too intently on the back fence of the yard.

“I guess he does that a lot,” said Echo, ”Or that’s what it sounded like, anyway.”

“What what sounded like?” said Cascabel, leaning out of the window a little. “Dinner’s ready by the way.”

“Thanks babe,” said Even.

“That Gig guy that’s fixing my bike,” said Echo, “he must stream a lot for all the stuff he has for it.”

Cascabel laughed. “Yeah, I mean, that is his job.”

“His job?”

Cascabel stopped, turning around to face them. “Yeah, he’s… kind of famous?” He glanced at Even.

Even shrugged. “Come on babe, you know Echo’s not online much.”

“Still,” said Cascabel, “he was in that commercial like, last month. That was on- well, I guess that was mostly online too.”

“He’s  _ famous _ ?” said Echo.

Even huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I know. But people love his stuff.”

“It’s good stuff,” said Cascabel, “I learnt how to repair the fridge from one of his videos.”

“So he does… repair videos?” said Echo slowly. “And he’s famous from this?”

“It’s… I guess?” said Even, “You should watch them, they’re pretty good.”

Echo made a face. “Sure.”

“They are!” said Even pulling out his phone, “here-”

“Your dinner’s going to be cold again if you two don’t hurry up,” said Cascabel, “Gig’s video archives aren’t going anywhere any time soon, you can watch them any time.”

They managed to get out of watching any kind of  _ online video content  _ that night. It was easy enough to keep Cascabel off the topic, and Even followed his lead. In truth, Echo didn't mind listening to them talk. It made a restful counterpoint to their own experience of what family dinners were like. 

They hadn't all been a battle, just towards the end-

Echo shook themselves, trying to refocus on what Even was saying. They'd come here to get a break from their family. They couldn't do that if they were thinking about them all the time.

Gig texted them as they were getting into bed, a single image. It took a moment for Echo to understand what he was looking at on the tiny, pixelated screen: it was their bike, a sheet half pulled over and tucked around it under the handlebars.

_ All tucked in for the night _ .

“Hey,” said Even, “we’re heading to bed, so if you-”

Echo looked up from their phone. “What?”

“Nothing,” said Even.

“No, what?”

“It’s nothing,” said Even, “ really, I just, uh… I don’t think I’ve even seen you smiling at your phone before. I mean you barely use it, so, uh.”

Ridiculously, Echo felt themselves flush. “I- Gig just sent me an update on my bike, so just, you know… glad to hear that it’s going well, I guess.”

Even smiled. “That’s great! I told you he was the best person for this.”

“Sure,” said Echo, “I guess we’ll see if he can  _ actually _ fix it.”

  
  


Echo travelled back to Gig's place again the next day. It was probably too soon for him to have fixed it, but it would be good to at least  _ check _ how he was going with it, and anyway, they felt better moving through the city instead of sitting around Even and Cascabel’s house.

The sign on the door said he wasn't streaming, so Echo knocked. 

"Echo?" said Gig from inside. 

"Uh, yeah, hi?"

"It's unlocked!" said Gig. 

It took them a moment to see Gig, balanced on a ladder so that he could stretch over a light fitting. He was wearing a truly absurd amount of safety gear over his bright orange overalls. Echo pressed their lips together, suppressing a laugh. 

"Sorry," said Gig, "I forgot to get a clamps before I put this together so I kind of can't really let go of this until it sets."

"I could hand you a clamp?"

There was a pause and then Gig laughed, the same bright laugh of the day before. "That would be great yeah!"

It took some searching but eventually they found one clamped to a table leg. 

"I guess I put it there because it was out of the way?" said Gig. "It's important to store tools safely."

Echo huffed a laugh, holding the ladder steady as they passed Gig the clamp. "So safely that you forget where it is."

Gig laughed. "I guess it might have been  _ too  _ safe."

They held the ladder steady as Gig climbed down, grinning at them as he reached the bottom.

“Thanks!” said Gig, “So, what brings you over this way today?”

“Uh… my bike?”

Gig blinked. “Oh! Yeah, I guess that- I mean, I kind of haven’t done anything else on it because I’m still waiting on that part? And also I was working on getting this thing edited and I guess it kind of got away from me- Sorry for making you come all this way, I should have texted you-”

“It’s okay,” said Echo, “It’s not that far-”

“I mean, it kind of is, if you’re staying with Even and Cascabel.”

“How did you know that?”

Gig raised his eyebrows. “Uh, Even told me? Wait, is it a secret?”

“It’s- no, it’s not a secret.”

“But it’s  _ kind _ of a secret, right?” said Gig, “Well, don’t worry, I can keep a secret!”

Echo crossed their arms.

“I can!” said Gig, “I’m great at secrets! I know so many secrets!”

Echo pressed their lips together, struggling to keep a serious expression on their face.

“I do!” said Gig, “I’d tell you some of them to prove it, but I won’t, because that’s how good I am at secrets!”

Echo laughed. “Okay, okay!” They took a breath, gathering themselves. “I wasn’t really expecting you to have, like, finished it, I just… didn’t really feel like sitting at home.”

Gig nodded seriously. “Worried about your bike, I get it.”

Echo smiled. “Something like that.”

“The part shouldn’t be too far away!” said Gig brightly, “I get stuff from them all the time, and they’re pretty quick. My last order from them came only like a few days after I ordered it, although I guess that was for a, y’know, less rare type of thing.”

Gig waved a hand behind him, at the half-repaired car. It looked the same as it had the day before, half polished and perfect and half practically demolished.

They must have made a face, because Gig huffed a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s for this series I’m kind of doing with Grand Magnificent-”

“Grand  _ Magnificent _ ?”

Gig laughed. “Yeah, no, I know. He’s this local artist guy, and he was doing this series of pieces on like, the nature of destruction, or something, and so he wrecked this car, and so now I’m trying put it back together!”

Echo frowned. “Is it… his car?”

“No, or, I don’t think it was,” said Gig, “but repairing it has been a really fun project, and people seem to really like it!”

“Oh yeah,” said Echo. They paused. “Cascabel said you were… famous?”

They felt their face flush as soon as the words left them, but Gig only laughed, his own cheeks tinged pink.

“I mean, that’s not really the goal, so I don’t really think about it,” said Gig, “But I guess? I do have more people comment now than when I first started, which is like, so incredible - when someone comments or sends me a message or something saying that I’ve actually helped them learn to do something, that’s like… it’s so great, you know?”

“I guess that does sound… good?” said Echo. “I’m not really, uh, online much.”

“Yeah, I remember Even saying,” said Gig, “I think it’s really cool- uh, that’s probably weird to say, huh? I mean, you probably get that a lot.”

“I extremely don’t,” said Echo, “Most people think it’s kind of weird, or tell me to get a better phone, or whatever.”

“But your phone is so cool!” said Gig, “Not to talk about an online thing  _ again _ but like, I just did this one on old tech, or what we  _ think _ of as old tech, and how it’s just as useful today if you make some really minor modifications to it, I mean,” he stepped towards one of the benches, gesturing as an ancient laptop. “Look at this!”

Echo followed, listening as Gig talked about the very old laptop with the pride usually reserved for the accomplishments of people’s children and, eventually, getting out their phone for Gig to exclaim over again in delight.

Maybe, Echo thought, they should check out his videos.

  
  


The videos, when they searched for them, weren’t what they were expecting.

First Of The Month DIY: How To Repair Your Sink Pipes

Power Keeps Overloading? Try This! (5 Ways!)

My Review Of Superglues (Patreon Request)

Quick Fix Afternoon! Repairing A Cracked Bench

Gig Kephart Q&A #57

They clicked on the Q&A video. In it, Gig was sitting on a bench fiddling with a set of allen keys as he spoke, his bright blond hair loose around his face.

“Hi guys, Gig Kephart here with another quick Q and A sesh!”

Echo looked at the timestamp of the video. Forty minutes. So not  _ so  _ quick. 

They clicked ahead in the video a little.

“-so when I tested the superglue I made sure to-”

They jumped ahead a little more.

“-such an interesting question! I don’t really know much about beauty products, so I mainly just used what my good friend Tender says to use, you should check out her channel if you haven’t already-”

They jumped ahead again, towards the end of the video.

“-this one comes from someone you all might know, my good friend Yam, and Yam asks-”

There was a little popup on the video.  _ Yam and Gig’s Kitchen Renovation _ . Echo clicked on it.

Another video opened. Gig, this time in bright yellow overalls and matching eyepatch, stood next to a gangly teen in big glasses.

“Hi guys!” said Gig, “I’m Gig Kephart and this is my good friend Yam.”

Yam waved awkwardly to the camera. Gig beamed.

“We’re here today to help renovate a kitchen for a good friend of Yam’s- Yam, why don’t you tell the people what we’re here to do?”

“We’re uh,” Yam adjusted his glasses. “We’re here to make this kitchen more wheelchair accessible. It’s going to be a big job-”

“And so who better than the two of us to do it,” said Gig brightly.

Yam laughed, some of the tension going out of his shoulders.

Echo watched the entire video, the kitchen slowly being dismantled and then reassembled before their eyes. There was something soothing about watching it, the sped-up montage of building interspersed with patches of Gig and Yam talking together about that tap fitting or this cupboard hinge, Yam slowly relaxing the longer the video went on. They kind of got why people would want to watch it. 

“What’re you- is that Gig?”

Echo jumped a little, feeling their face flush. They must have been more absorbed in the video than they’d realised, they hadn’t even heard Even approach. Echo hurriedly paused the video.

“I just… y’know, I was hanging out with him and he was talking about it and it sounded kind of interesting so- what?”

“Nothing,” said Even, “They’re good videos.”

“They really are!” said Echo, “And he’s done so many, I mean-”

There was a knock at the door.

Echo and Even both turned to look at the closed front door.

The knocking came again.

“Uh, hello?” said Even.

There was a pause from outside. “Hello? I uh. Listen, is Echo here?”

Echo froze. It was Ballad.

Even looked at them.

“ _ Are _ you here?” whispered Even.

Echo huffed a laugh, nervous energy making their hands twitch. “I’m not  _ afraid  _ of them.” They raised their voice. “Hi Ballad.”

“Echo, I-” Ballad paused. “Can you come out here? I feel weird doing this through a door.”

Even looked at Echo again. Echo took a breath in, trying to look more confident than they felt. Even didn’t look as convinced as they would hope, stepping behind them protectively as they moved to open the door.

Echo waved him away. “I’ll be fine.”

Even nodded, squeezing their shoulder. “I’ll just be in the other room if you need me.”

Echo took another deep breath and opened the door. Their stomach clenched as they saw Ballad, their last fight echoing in their ears.

“Hi,” said Ballad, his voice hoarse.

“What is it?” said Echo.

Their voice came out even harsher than they’d meant it to. Ballad flinched.

“I just… Our parents are freaking out, Legato’s been worried sick… I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Echo’s stomach twisted again. “I’m fine. I’m sorry you had to go to so much trouble on their behalf.”

“That’s not- I was worried about you too! Obviously!” said Ballad.

Echo snorted. “Sure, so worried it took you a month to say hi.”

“I knew you wanted your space!” said Ballad, “I knew you were probably staying here, so you were safe, and I just… look, I don’t want to fight.”

“Sure,” said Echo.

“I just wanted you to know that you could come home,” said Ballad, “If you wanted to.”

“I guess they’ll have a spare room,” said Echo.

“I- I’m not leaving,” said Ballad.

“What?”

“I’m not going leaving,” repeated Ballad, “After we- after you left I kept thinking about everything, what you said and… I’m not going.”

Echo stomach twisted again, in a different way this time, heat prickling behind their eyes. They turned away.

“Oh.”

They saw, out of the corner of their eye, Ballad’s hand raise slightly towards them and then drop back down by their side.

“Yeah so… you’d still have to share a room with me,” said Ballad, “Sucks, I know.’

Echo swallowed. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“You can keep the bike though,” said Ballad, ”to make up for it.”

Echo stomach lurched again, the feeling twisting up into their chest and pushing them forward, wrapping Ballad into a hug. Ballad returned it, letting Echo press their face into his shoulder, the way they had done ever since they were small.

“The bike broke,” they managed to say.

They felt Ballad lean back a little. “What?”

“It was making this weird noise so I took it apart and it was still making that noise and I couldn’t fix it-”

“Hey,” said Ballad, “Hey, it’s okay, we’ll work on it together.”

“No, it’s fine, it’s- Gig, this mechanic, he’s fixing it.”

Ballad blinked, frowning at them. “You let someone else touch one of our bikes?”

“He’s talented,” said Echo.

Ballad raised his eyebrows and Echo felt themselves flush.

“Not like- shut up.”

Ballad laughed, sliding his arm more around their shoulder and ruffling their hair. Echo batted his hand away, their chest feeling too light to put too much effort into a scowl.

“Hey so uh, dinner’s ready?” said Even.

“Okay,” said Echo. They paused. “Hey, um, did you want to stay for dinner?” 

“Yeah, that’d be great,” said Ballad, “If, uh, that’s okay?”

Even nodded. “I’ll let ‘bel know to set out an extra plate, you know he always makes extra anyway.”

“And then you can tell me all about this Gig guy,” said ballad.

“He’s just a mechanic guy, a friend of Even’s,” said Echo, feeling their cheeks heat again.

“Must be  _ some _ mechanic to impress you,” said Ballad.

Echo pushed his shoulder. “You’re uninvited to dinner.”

“No, sorry,” said Ballad airily, grinning, “it’s too late, I’m already inside.”

Echo pushed his shoulder again, laughing.

  
  


There was a text from Gig waiting for them the next time they looked at their phone.

_ Bike’s fixed!! _

Echo stared at the message, waiting as the tiny image loaded. They squinted at it a little, trying to make out what it was - it was their bike and them something blurry and dark in the foreground that they eventually, after a few minutes of turning their phone this way and that, realised was Gig’s hand, giving a thumbs up.

They laughed. Even shot them a curious look.

“My bike’s fixed.”

“That’s great,” said Even, “Do you want a lift over there?”

“I’ll just take the train,” said Echo, “That way I can drive it back.”

“To here or back home?” said Even, his voice far too casual to really be casual.

Echo shrugged, spinning their phone on the table. “Dunno. Home probably. At least to like… check in with everyone. You’re probably kind of sick of me.”

“Never,” said Even. “I said stay as long as you like and I meant it.”

Echo ducked their head. “I. You know I don’t think I ever actually thanked you.”

“You were pretty messed up the first night you got here,” said Even, “I knew you meant it.”

He squeezed Echo’s shoulder, stepping away to get started on the dishes.

“You must be glad your bike’s fixed,” said Even.

“Uh,  _ yeah _ ,” said Echo, “not being able to ride it has totally sucked.”

Even laughed. “Yeah, and taking that long trip out to Gig’s, I mean, I love the guy but it’s kind of a trek out to see him.”

“It’s not that bad,” said Echo.

Even glanced back towards them. “I would have thought you’d be sick of it, I mean, I know you hate taking trips like that.”

Echo shrugged, their throat feeling tight. 

  
  


The train trip to Gig’s warehouse felt faster than usual. Echo watched as the city turned to suburbs, then to highways. It was strange that the trip had become so familiar to them in so short a time, and that they would most likely never come out that way again. Maybe someday they’d drive along the highway and feel a sense of deja vu, but the chance they’d make the full trip seemed unlikely, unless they had another issue with their bike.

Probably not though. They could fix their own bike, and Gig would surely be too busy to deal with minor fixes.

They knocked on the warehouse door.

“Echo, hello!” said Gig.

Echo laughed, opening the door.

Gig’s overalls were blue and yellow striped this time, his eyepatch made of silvery-reflective safety material. He waved to Echo, wheeling their bike over to them.

“See, I told you,” said Gig, “A week doesn’t feel that long after it’s over!”

“I guess not,” said Echo, something clenching in their chest.

Gig flipped down the kickstand of their bike, gesturing to it, his hand fluttering back down to rest of the handlebar. “So, uh. Here you go!”

“You don’t need to do any final checks?”

“No I, uh,” Gig flushed, rubbing the back of his neck, “I kind of did them already. I… the actual repair didn’t take as long as I thought and I kind of- Sorry for keeping it so long-”

Echo stepped forward. “No, it’s fine, I- I mean, I  _ love  _ my bike, I cannot  _ wait _ to drive it again, but I… I guess I kind of didn’t mind how long the repair took.”

Gig laughed. “It only took a week!”

“Yeah,” said Echo, “But I think I… I think I kind of wanted it to take longer.”

“Me too,” said Gig.

Echo stilled. “Wait what?”

“What?”

“What did you just say?”

“What did  _ you  _ just say?”

“I… I’m sure you have better things to do that repair my motorbike,” said Echo.

“Maybe,” said Gig, “But doing it meant I got to see you, so-”

Echo flushed. “I…”

They reached out, putting their hand next to his on the handlebar of the bike. They were close enough now to hear Gig’s breath hitch.

“Hey,” said Echo softly, “I know you said you’ve already tested this but, did you want to, maybe, uh… go on a test ride?”

Gig swallowed. “That would be… yeah. I’d like that.”

They slid onto the bike, flexing their hands on the handlebars for a moment before they looked back up at Gig. He was looking back at them, fingers still brushing the edge of the handlebar, as though he couldn’t bring himself to let go. They were close enough to see the flush on his skin, to notice how he was leaning closer to them.

Echo sat up, leaning up towards them, and Gig met them halfway. Gig’s hand rested tentatively on their shoulder, his touch gentle. They reached up, cupping his cheek, deepening the kiss.

They broke apart after what felt like hours, breathing close.

“So,” said Echo, “Still up for that ride?”

Gig huffed a laugh. “Absolutely.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi: mariusperkins on most places


End file.
